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Mt Rouse News & Views Year 2 Edition 18 6th May 2020 Mt Rouse News & Views A Project of the Penshurst Mens Shed Inc ANZAC DAY IN PENSHURST Anzac day offers us a moment to reflect on the fact that freedom is not free, it comes at a price. While the current lockdown meant that RSL could not conduct the usual dawn service at the Cenotaph on Bell Street, at dawn this year a small service was conducted personally by the RSL President at the Cenotaph and wreaths were laid here and at the memorial in the Avenue of Honour on the road to Hamilton. Councillor Cathy Armstrong laid a wreath on the cenotaph later in the morning on behalf of the Southern Grampians Shire Council. It was also pleasing to note that a good number of residents conducted their own driveway services at dawn as had been recommended by the National Office of the RSL. A wreath was laid on the memorial at the start of the Avenue of Honour The Cenotaph on the roundabout in Bell Street showing the flag at half mast and the Wreaths laid earlier in the morning Wreaths and candles at the base of the Cenotaph. Pa g e 2 M T R O U S E News & Views Pa g e 3 M T R O U S E News & Views Caramut and District Garden Club I have noticed in some nurseries, punnets of carrot seedlings ready for planting. Carrots hate to be disturbed once they have started to grow, so unless you carefully took the soil and seedlings out to plant as a whole, they will not grow. Even if you managed to plant the carrot seedlings without disturbing the plants, the carrots would be too close together and you would only have tiny carrots. I noticed on the ABC gardening show recently, to thin out carrots, use a pair of scissors and cut out the unwanted plants. If you wish to grow carrots, buy a packet of seed and plant out. The cost is about the same and you will have more carrots to harvest. Mix the fine seed with sand to help space the seeds. Firm down using the palm of your hand and lightly water. This method can be used for all types of seeds. I would suggest you cover any newly planted seeds or seedlings with mesh to stop the birds (or cats) from scratching in the lovely soil and destroying your seeds/plants. Peas, onions, silver beet, spinach and broad beans can all be planted out now. Also pansy, larkspur, hollyhock, linaria, polyanthus and Iceland poppy. Instead of burning Autumn leaves, rake up and cover the beds with a thick layer of leaves. These will rot down and make lovely soil and will also stop the weeds from growing. It might take a couple of years to completely eradicate the leaves. I have some onion weed growing in one bed, so covered the area with cardboard before placing the leaves thickly on top. Raking leaves is also an excellent way to keep warm. A good example of a variety of Pansy “A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.“ E E Cummings “Autumn is really the best of the seasons; and I'm not sure that old age isn't the best part of life. But of course, like autumn, it doesn't last.“ C S Lewis “Pansies in soft April rains Fill their stalks with honeyed sap drawn from Earth's prolific lap.“ Bayard Taylor Pa g e 4 M T R O U S E News & Views Pa g e 5 M T R O U S E News & Views Sammy Scribe’s ‘Did You Know?’ Concerning human endeavour, it is good to remember that: • Before we discovered and harnessed electricity, electric eels have generated their own electricity at will, up to 700 volts. • Before we invented electric lights, fireflies were flashing their signals to one another, and certain fish in the ocean depths produce light to guide their travels. • Long before we learned to navigate the seven seas, birds travelled from the Artic to the Antarctic, landing at the same nesting sites year after year. • Before we ever designed and built suspension bridges, spiders demonstrated engineering feats of amazing brilliance. • Bird’s nests display a high level of engineering skill in masonry, weaving, tunnelling, and structural strength necessary to build them. • Bees, with their wings, “air-condition” their hives. God’s creation is amazing. Pa g e 6 M T R O U S E News & Views Grab your Takeaway and extras from Josh & Tracy Hewitt at the Penshurst Newsagency & Takeaway 86 Bell Street Penshurst 5576 5330 All Day Breakfast, Home-made cakes & slices Mahalia Coffee, Fresh Bread, Milk, Meat and soft drinks. Fresh battered Fish, Dim Sims, Hot Chips and much more. NEW MENU ITEMS Huge range of focaccias - Egg & Bacon Rolls & Muffins Opening hours Monday 6 am - 7 pm Tuesday 6 am - 5 pm Wednesday & Thursday 6 am - 7 pm Friday & Saturday 7 am - 8pm Sunday 8 am - 7 pm Ready to go Roast Lamb & Beef Gravy Rolls Ask about our American Style Burger Menu Please phone late orders 15 minutes prior to closing, thank you Thought for every day A person who feels appreciated will always do more than is expected. Cora Howard Pa g e 7 M T R O U S E News & Views In challenging times we can all use a little inspiration. Mervyn Napier Waller is still inspiring creativity. ‘An artist draws with his head, not his hands’ by Claire Hunter Artist Napier Waller lost his right arm after being wounded in the fighting at Bullecourt in 1917, but he never lost his love of art. Determined to continue painting and drawing, Waller taught himself to use his left hand, and went on to become a noted Australian muralist, mosaicist and painter, creating the magnificent mosaics and stained glass in the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial. The Memorial’s Head of Art, Laura Webster, said Waller’s dedication to his art was extraordinary. “Napier Waller is an important artist to the Memorial,” she said. “The vast mosaics and stained glass windows he created are extraordinary in their innovation, iconography and overwhelming beauty, and sit within the heart of the Memorial.” Each year millions of people are moved by his work, which surrounds the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier, but his own life is also a story of courage and determination. Born Mervyn Napier Waller at Penshurst in country Victoria in June 1893, Waller left school at 14 to work on the family farm before moving to Melbourne in 1913 to study drawing and painting at the National Gallery schools. He exhibited watercolours and drawings at the Victorian Artists’ Society in 1915, but decided to put his artistic career on hold to serve on the Western Front during the First World War. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1915 and trained at Royal Park Camp in Victoria before being transferred to the artillery. He married fellow art student Christian Yandell in October 1915, and in May the following year embarked on the troopship Medic to complete his military training on Salisbury Plain in England. By the end of 1916, Waller was serving with the 111th Howitzer Battery in France. He used his diary to detail his experiences at the front, complaining of the never-ending cold and mud, and making sketches of the scenes around him. “Today cold is fearful – beyond words,” he wrote. “Nearly caught whilst asleep last night: heavy shell fell within yards of trench and threw heaps of dirt upon our tarpaulin cover. “Travelling is slow and miserable … the drivers must walk for there is ever the danger of being hurt from falling horses. The way is now in deep or steep hills and we pity the horses and then pity ourselves.” Continued page 16 Pa g e 8 M T R O U S E News & Views ‘An artist draws with his head, not his hands’ (continued) When Waller was severely wounded at Bullecourt in May 1917, his right arm was amputated at the shoulder. During his convalescence in France and England, he trained himself to write and draw with his left hand, later reflecting that “an artist draws with his head, not his hands”. After returning to Australia in November 1917, Waller resumed his work as an artist. He completed a series of images called War sketches in black and white, watercolour and oil which were exhibited in 1918 and 1919 in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and Hobart. Over the next two decades, Waller established himself as a mural artist and mosaicist, undertaking large-scale commissions for the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne and the State Library of Victoria. He visited Europe in the late 1920s to study stained glass, was deeply impressed by the Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, Italy, and studied mosaic in Venice. When he returned to Melbourne in 1930, he began to work almost exclusively in stained glass and mosaic. He completed a monumental mosaic for the University of Western Australia in 1931, followed by two important commissions in Melbourne: the mosaic façade for Newspaper House, and the murals for the dining hall in the Myer Emporium. In 1937, the Memorial invited Waller to design and install the stained glass windows and mosaics for the Hall of Memory. The stained glass windows were installed from 1947 to 1950 and Waller worked on the mosaics from 1955 to 1958.
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